"Islamic Apostasy Laws – A Big Disgrace in the 21st Century." It is absolutely ridiculous in the twenty-first century to have laws where one could be criminalised and punished for thinking differently or expressing an opinion. Just this year, Kuwait jailed Abdel Aziz Mohamed Albaz for criticizing Islam, Tunisian artist Nadia Jelassi is facing prison for her ‘un-Islamic’ artistic pieces, Moroccan activist Imad Alhabibi was arrested for being an ex-Muslim, and Saudi activist Raif Albadawi was sentenced last week to seven years and 600 lashings for airing his liberal views. These were in addition to the many others whom I blogged about earlier this year. In Islam, apostasy is commonly defined as the rejection in words or action of one’s religion by a person who was previously a Muslim. As simple as this might sound, the definition is quite broad and could include not only renouncing Islam, but also criticising or defaming the religion and ‘attempting’ to lead others away from it. It is also broad enough to include liberal and progressive Muslims who challenge traditional Islamic thoughts. Cases such as that of the late Egyptian thinker Nasr Hamid Abu-zaid who fled the country after being charged with apostasy for his critical Islamic writings and Sudanese theologian Mahmoud M. Taha who was hanged in the centre of Khartoum for expressing his progressive Islamic thoughts are just two examples among many others. Terms such as Kafir/a, Murtad/a and Zendeeg/a are specifically designed to label individuals who challenge Islam and to encourage action to be taken towards them.Ebn Warraq spells this out in his book ‘Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak out’. As I am speaking now, more than 19 Islamic states and Muslim-majority countries consider apostasy to be illegal and to merit a form of punishment. Many of these, including Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Somalia, Afghanistan, Qatar, Yemen and Mauritania have a death penalty for those who renounce or criticize Islam. Other countries like Malaysia, Morocco, Jordan and Oman consider it illegal and have in place other forms of punishments, such as fines, imprisonment, flogging and exclusion from civic or family rights like child custody…. https://facebook/photo.php?fbid=500325256729034&set=a.407675405994020.94520.387111368050424&type=1&theater
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 22:54:02 +0000
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